Rivera has work cut out for him

Wednesday

Jan 2, 2013 at 7:30 AM

Some people thought the Carolina Panthers would fire Ron Rivera on Monday.

Jason Queen

Some people thought the Carolina Panthers would fire Ron Rivera on Monday. I thought the Panthers would fire Rivera in October.It looks like, as of right now, we were wrong. Rivera survived Black Monday, the day after the NFL's regular season ends. It certainly earned that nickname this season, with seven different teams making changes at the top. The most notable was Philadelphia cutting Andy Reid loose after 14 seasons. He was, until Monday, the longest tenured coach in the league, with multiple division titles and a trip to the Super Bowl on his resume. When you go 4-12, and appear to be headed in the wrong direction, you get fired. Simple as that.The others were pretty obvious. Norv Turner seemed to live on the hot seat in San Diego, Pat Shurmur couldn't put out the dumpster fire in Cleveland, and Romeo Crennel seemed to have his engine stuck in reverse in Kansas City. Buffalo was going nowhere under Chan Gailey, and on and on. I was stunned, though, to see Rex Ryan keep his job in New York, Jim Schwartz staying put in Detroit, Jason Garrett hanging around in Dallas, and Lovie Smith being shown the door in Chicago. Seeing Rivera keep his job in Carolina, however, wasn't that big of a surprise. Nothing Jerry Richardson does surprises me any more. He has turned great coaches (George Seifert, Dom Capers, John Fox) into mediocre coaches, and held on to coaches and players for all the wrong reasons. He didn't want Fox around his last year, but didn't want to buy out his contract to fire him a year before his gig was up. The result was a 2-14 season in 2010 that should have resulted in every PSL owner being offered a full refund. Richardson also held on to certain guys (Jake Delhomme, DeShaun Foster, Dan Morgan, to name a few) for far too long, while letting others (Will Witherspoon, Brad Hoover, Jerome Felton) walk away with plenty left in the tank.So 2012 was just another one of those years for the Panthers. They lost winnable games to Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and Tampa Bay again to finish 7-9. They beat up on a bunch of also-rans down the stretch to finish in second place in the NFC South. Yes, the Falcons were in the middle of the home stretch in which Carolina won five of its last six games, but the Falcons are probably the worst really good team in the NFC. They are capable of laying an egg on any given night, and are prime target for a playoff upset.Looking ahead to 2013, things have to change in a hurry. The only problem is, Richardson's spending spree to keep that 2-14 team intact makes change very difficult to accomplish. They look to be about $16 million over the salary cap for next year already, which means someone — make that several someones — are going to have to get cut. My suggestions: Jonathan Stewart, who spends way more time in street clothes than he does in pads; Jon Beason, ditto; Jimmy Clausen, Armanti Edwards, David Gettis, and Sherrod Martin. Unfortunately, that probably still wouldn't be enough to get Carolina under the cap. There is a chance Chris Gamble or some other big names won't be back next season.Most of the talk lately has been about the future of DeAngelo Williams. But he has proven he is nowhere near the down side of his career; I'd take a 30-year-old Williams over a 25-year-old Stewart any day. What would you rather have, an old pickup that still gets the job done or a shiny new one that's in the shop every other week?I would say this should be an interesting offseason for the Panthers. But, I'm afraid it won't be. That's not Carolina's style. The Panthers don't make a big splash in free agency, other than occasionally dropping big names into the pool. This spring shouldn't be much different. Carolina has to play the NFC West and AFC East in 2013, which means dates with the 49ers, Seahawks and Patriots. And by finishing second in the NFC South, they earned games against the Vikings and Giants. Honestly, an 8-8 season may be all Carolina can hope for. I say dump some payroll, and get right with the salary cap. And if Rivera keeps his job, he'd better get on a hot streak early next season; starting off 2-8 won't cut it again.Jason Queen can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 220, or jason.queen@the-dispatch.com.